The Watchtower

The Erie Lackawanna Train station's watchtower in Hoboken, NJ

The clock tower at Erie Lackawanna Railroad & Ferry Terminal was part of a $115 million renovation. The $5 million, 30,600-pound replica of the terminal's original clock tower was placed on the newly renovated tower in November 2007. The clock was originally removed around 1950 because of storm damage.

Designed by engineer Lincoln Bush and architect Kenneth Murchison, the Erie Lackawanna Railroad and Ferry Terminal is listed on the State and National Registers of Historic Places. Built by the Delaware, Lackawanna, & Western Railroad, the entire structure sits over water on a steel and concrete foundation, accommodating six ferry slips and fourteen rail lines. The individually roofed train shed arches are an innovative design by Bush. The entire structure is sheathed in copper.

Years ago, the terminal was a busy hub for Ellis Island immigrants traveling by train to western portions of the country, and by local residents traveling to and from New York City. Today, the terminal plays a vital role in New Jersey's transportation system. Hoboken Terminal is a multi-modal transportation center for the northern and central portions of the state and is served by numerous NJ TRANSIT bus and commuter rail lines, the PATH rapid rail system to New York City, Jersey City and Newark, and NY Waterway ferry service to lower Manhattan.

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Frames

The camera is much more than a recording apparatus. It is a medium via which messages reach us from another world.  Orson Welles
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Immersion

The more one looks, the more one sees. And the more one sees, the better one knows where to look. 

Pierre Teilhard de Chardin

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Oblivion

Jersey City Skyline
(06/28/2012, 7:15 PM)

THE CURRENT CHALLENGE

Fri Aug 24, 2012

This week's challenge:
'Quiet'.

“Creativity requires the courage to let go of certainties.” 
― Erich Fromm

Oblivion  [əˈblivēən]  -  noun

1 the state of being unaware or unconscious of what is happening.

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Just Genetics

BILL'S BLOG

I Dream of Geney 

By Bill Maher

Genetic scientists have finally mapped the DNA of a primate cousin of the chimpanzee known as the bonobo. And I just thought you should know that. Actually, the genetically ingrained personality traits of the bonobo versus those of the chimp may tell us something about humans and human nature.

You see, bonobos, chimps and man all shared a common ancestor about six million years ago – Abe Vigoda. But then, as happens with evolution, man went off on his own genetic direction and the bonobo and the chimp shared the same common ancestor up until about a million years ago. Then the Congo River formed and the ape ancestors on one side of the river evolved differently than the ape ancestors on the other. Eventually, we got two different species – the chimpanzee and the bonobo – who share about 99.6% of their genomes. As opposed to humans, who have about 98.7% of the same genetic blueprint as both bonobos and chimpanzees. I swear I’m going somewhere with this.

Just as a common ancestor came to an evolutionary crossroads where two distinct genetic cousins – the bonobo and chimp – were formed, perhaps man has come to a genetic crossroads where we’re evolving into two slightly-genetically-different species: liberal man and conservative man. Only the thing that’s prompting this split into two separate species isn’t a physical division; it’s a political one. Our Congo River is American politics.

Consider this: genetically, the bonobo is the liberal ape. It’s kinder and gentler than the chimp. Where chimps have been documented to be more prone to violence and to actually make war, bonobos share food with total strangers and are more nurturing. The bonobos are also more tolerant and social than chimps and they’re far more sexual. They are much more likely to release tension through the act of having sex than the way chimps release tension, by fighting.

Sound familiar? If these apes could vote, the chimps would be the sexually repressed balls of angst who want gun rights and a stronger military and the bonobo would be all for welfare spending and teaching sex-ed in schools. Only they couldn’t do that condom demonstration because they’d keep eating the banana.

Is the gulf becoming too wide? Are liberals and conservatives evolving into two separate, distinct types of humans?

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